BCR’s CDP Digital Imaging Best Practices, Version 2.0

This is the published version.These Best Practices — also referred to as the CDP Best Practices -- have been created through the collaboration of working groups pulled from library, museum and archive practitioners. Version 1 was created through funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services through a grant to the University of Denver and the Colorado Digitization Program in 2003. Version 2 of the guidelines were published by BCR in 2008 and represents a significant update of practices under the leadership of their CDP Digital Imaging Best Practices Working Group. The intent has been to help standardize and share protocols governing the implementation of digital projects. The result of these collaborations is a set of best practice documents that cover issues such as digital imaging, Dublin Core metadata and digital audio. These best practice documents are intended to help with the design and implementation of digitization projects. Because they were collaboratively designed by experts in the field, you can be certain they include the best possible information, in addition to having been field tested and proven in practice. These best practice documents are an ongoing collaborative project, and LYRASIS will add information and new documents as they are developed

A drawing book for digital eyes

Looking at book covers may not tell you everything, but they do tell you something. A collection of leather-bound ‘how to draw’ books of the nineteen twenties exudes confidence, the expertise of the masters handed down. The titles indicate attention to technique, referring to ‘pencil drawing’, ‘lead pencil drawing’, or ‘pen and ink’, and speak of the ‘art’ of drawing. Some of these had been in print for fifty years. There are idealised classical figures, nature studies, but also stirrings of a more liberal approach. By the nineteen forties and fifties the books are less formal, less symmetrical, and more Do-It-Yourself: ‘I wish I could draw’, ‘Drawing at Home’, ’The Natural Way to Draw’, ‘Drawing Without a Master’. Some are slim volumes running in series devoted to subjects such as ships, cats, trees, even tanks. You draw the world around you

Digital archiving and reproduction of black and white photography

Capturing and reproducing black and white images are common problems for high quality print reproduction. This study compared the monotone reproduction quality of the Kodak Photo CD Master technology to the standard methods currently being employed using high resolution scanners such as the Agfa Horizon Scanner and the Optronics ColorGetter II. The Kodak Photo CD Master and the Optronics ColorGetter II were used to scan the original 35mm black and white film negatives. The negatives selected represent the various tonal ranges encountered by professional photographers. High key and low key images were included in the selection since these are the extreme density range of negatives. The same six monotone images, obtained from a professional photographer, were scanned using either the negative or the desired print. The flatbed scanners, the midrange Agfa Horizon and the low end Agfa StudioScan, captured the desired print as a digital file. The Optronics ColorGetter II, a drum scanner, and the Kodak Photo CD captured the monotone negative. This study determined whether the image captured by the Photo CD Master scanner could produce the image quality that is required by professional photographers. Currently, quality printing uses high end scanners to capture high resolutions and detail. Photo CD\u27s are being implemented for archival storage of dig ital images. Traditional methods of scanning were also investigated to determine whether it is possible to digitally reproduce a monotone desired print accurately to satisfy a professional photographer. Digital duplication of the desired print , with its darkroom manipulation, would be a significant achievement for the photographer. In using a digital format a photographer would be able to store and recall the information and exactly duplicate a print without spending additional time cus tom printing. Adobe Photoshop 2.5.1 was used to globally and locally control the negative to reproduce the photographer\u27s intent. A comparison was made between the desired print and the results obtained through the digital capture, manipulation, storage and printing of the image. Each digital image captured by the four scanners was printed on four different printers. The four printers used in this study are: The Canon Laser Copier 500 Color Electrophotographic Laser The Hewlett Packard LaserJet, monochrome electrophotographic laser The 3M Rainbow Dye Sublimation The Epson Stylus InkJet This thesis questions whether the digital darkroom can replace the professional photographer\u27s wet darkroom through the use of scanners, computers, software and desktop printers. It determines which method is best for capturing and reproducing the professional photographer\u27s images. An evaluation of the final digital prints is made by a professional photographer

Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts. EVA 2012 Florence

The key aim of this Event is to provide a forum for the user, supplier and scientific research communities to meet and exchange experiences, ideas and plans in the wide area of Culture & Technology. Participants receive up to date news on new EC and international arts computing & telecommunications initiatives as well as on Projects in the visual arts field, in archaeology and history. Working Groups and new Projects are promoted. Scientific and technical demonstrations are presented

The development of methods for the reproduction in continuous tone of digitally printed colour artworks

Advances in printing technologies in the late 19th century led to the development of half-toning techniques enabling the economical reproduction of photographic images in print. Whilst undoubtedly successful in low cost high volume image reproduction, half-toning representations are less faithful in detail when compared to continuous tone photomechanical methods in use at that time. This thesis asks the question: can the creative application of 21st century digital fabrication technologies enable the qualities of continuous tone imaging to be regained? In the 21st-century, printmaking may be seen as the interchange of ideas, experimental practice and interdisciplinary thinking. Printmaking has always been a means of combining modern technology and methods with existing traditional and commercial imaging processes. Technological advancement in print however does not always provide a finer quality of print. Qualities often attributed to pre-digital continuous tone printing can be lost in the transition to a digital half tone print workflow. This research project examines a near obsolete 19th century print process, the continuous tone Woodburytype, developed to address the issue of permanence in photography. Through a methodological approach analyses of the Woodburytype an empirical reconstruction of the process provides a comprehensive critique of its method. The Woodburytype’s surface qualities are not found in other photomechanical printing methods capable of rendering finely detailed photographic images. Its method of image translation results in the printed tonal range being directly proportional to the deposition thickness of the printing ink, however it never successfully developed into a colour process. By examining and evaluating digital imaging technology this study identifies, current computer aided design and manufacturing techniques and extends upon known models of Woodburytype printing through the development of this deposition height quality enabling a new digital polychromatic colour printing process

Portraits, Preservation & Pedigrees: An Introduction to Photographic Portraiture, Photographs as a Means of Genealogical Research, and a Preservation Case Study of the Howard D. Beach Studio Collection of Glass Plate Negatives

Photography is an established art form that combines the knowledge of chemistry, light, and optics to render an image. Initially, the image is captured on a flat surface coated with emulsion and combined with an exposure to sunlight or another illuminating source. Today, images are captured by digital methods. Artistically, the photograph may reveal sceneries of landscapes, of treasured belongings and of people, as they are seen to the human eye. Photographic portraiture is the oldest style of photography next to landscape imagery, due to commercial photographers setting up studios and experimenting with photography’s many cameras, plates, and emulsions. In the late nineteenth century, the dry gelatin glass plate negative emerged to replace its predecessors, and created a booming business in photographic material manufacturers. Today, museums, archives and libraries in the United States are using current technologies and knowledge of the dry gelatin glass plate negative to preserve them for long-term accessibility and research use. Of the many research uses, genealogists use these plates to identify ancestors and build upon a family history. This thesis will provide a brief history of photography, an insight into photographic portraiture, and steps to preserve dry gelatin glass plate negatives. It will also involve a background of genealogical research with the use of photographs. Lastly, this paper will contain a case study conducted by the author of the preservation and genealogical research of the Howard D. Beach Studio Photography Collection of Glass Plate Negatives, as provided by The Buffalo History Museum in Buffalo, New York

Digital Image Access & Retrieval

The 33th Annual Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in March of 1996, addressed the theme of "Digital Image Access & Retrieval." The papers from this conference cover a wide range of topics concerning digital imaging technology for visual resource collections. Papers covered three general areas: (1) systems, planning, and implementation; (2) automatic and semi-automatic indexing; and (3) preservation with the bulk of the conference focusing on indexing and retrieval.published or submitted for publicatio

The State of Preservation Metadata Practices in North Carolina Repositories

Grand metadata schemas and detailed technology applications may well be ideal for the effective preservation of digital images, but they may not be practical for the vast majority of cultural heritage repositories. If resource-challenged organizations do not receive assistance in scaling these efforts to meet their available resources, hundreds of repositories may waste valuable assets on ineffective measures, or they may do nothing at all. The aim of this study is to determine where North Carolina repositories are in their efforts to digitize collections; how they are incorporating preservation metadata, if at all; and to solicit their assessment of the Metadata for the Administration and Preservation of Digital Images (MAPDI) schema created by the North Carolina Exploring Cultural Heritage Online Preservation Metadata Working Group. The accompanying MAPDI database tool was expanded to include the capture of collection-level Dublin Core discovery metadata as well as preservation metadata. Results of the survey indicate that smaller repositories may be in need of far greater assistance in their preservation efforts, and that they frequently have to place practicality before perfect practice